Evening Brief: Monday, March 14, 2016

Tonight’s Evening Brief is brought to you by the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom and UNESCO. Join us on May 3 for the 18th annual World Press Freedom Day Awards luncheon at the Chateau Laurier with guest speaker Suzanne Legault. Single and group tickets available here

The Lead:

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair speaks to reporters in the Foyer of the House of Commons in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

We begin tonight with the fight of Tom Mulcair’s life. The NDP leader finds himself between a devastating election loss and a critical leadership review, formulating a rationale for his continued stewardship of a party uncertain of its own relevance in Justin Trudeau’s Canada, according to a report in The Hill Times today. On the weekend, CP ran an interview with a rather wistful Mulcair on why he’s decided to “stay in the fight.” Technically, Mulcair can leave Edmonton on April 10 with his title intact if he gets 50.1 per cent of the vote. In practical terms, some in the party say he needs 70 per cent.

In Canada:

With MPs on spring break, it’s been a relatively quiet domestic news day:

Toronto is the latest city looking at moving forward with setting up safe injection sites, following a recommendation Monday by its medical officer of health to open up a number of sites in the city. Our Kyle Duggan has the details.

Adversity has been the mother of invention for one young Syrian refugee who, before the age of 20, has overcome prison under the Assad regime and migration to Turkey, while inventing, among other things, a nuclear waste disposal system. Here’s Reuters TV.